Used properly, the internet is a powerful tool that can help financial advisors generate more visibility, credibility, website visitors, and qualified leads. Your current marketing strategy may or may not include a digital marketing strategy. This is a big mistake because the Internet is already the best way for financial advisors to connect with their target audience and the rising utilization rate is staggering.
The internet will be even more productive in the future as more investors determine it is their best way to find, research, and contact financial advisors. And they can remain anonymous until they are ready to be contacted to schedule interviews.
Even better, when investors use the Internet to find and research financial advisors, they are the ones who initiate the contact. This is the “inbound” marketing feature of the internet. This is far superior to the obsolete “outbound” marketing tactics that required financial advisors to waste their time cold-calling investors who did not respond to their calls.
Following are some financial advisor marketing tactics that advisors can use to make the Internet their best source for new leads, prospects, and clients.
How do financial advisors use social media to connect with more investors?
Social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook are great places to connect with investors who are seeking financial services and information. Financial advisors use these platforms to build relationships and produce credibility and trust with investors. For example, you can post helpful articles and blog posts on LinkedIn or share industry news on Twitter. You can also use Facebook ads to target potential clients in your market area.
Why optimize financial advisor websites for lead generation?
Your website is not just a way to disseminate information about your firm on the internet. Advisory firm websites should be designed to generate high-quality financial advisor leads
Make sure your website has clear Calls-To-Action (CTAs) so visitors know what you want them to do next. For example, your CTA could be “Request a Free eBook” or “Sign Up for Our Newsletter.” You should also include a convenient landing page on your website so visitors can easily submit their contact information to get in touch with you.
How does SEO impact the production of leads for financial advisors?
Financial advisors who want to generate more leads should consider using SEO. SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a process whereby websites are made more visible in organic (unpaid) search results. In other words, SEO can help your website rank higher in Google searches, making it more likely that investors will be able to find you.
Investors looking for financial advisors are likely to use Google or another search engine to find a firm in their area. If your website appears on the first few pages of results, you are much more likely to get clicks and generate leads than if your website is buried on page four or higher of their search results.
How do keywords impact visibility and website traffic for financial advisors?
One of the most important tasks you can do to improve your website's SEO is to ensure you are using the right keywords. These are the words and phrases that investors use when they search for financial advisors on the Internet.
You can use keyword research tools like Google AdWords Keyword Planner and Moz Keyword Explorer to find out which keywords are most frequently used to find financial advisors on the Internet. Once you have identified several keywords, work them into your website's content in a way that sounds natural. However, you don't want to stuff them into your content because this can have an adverse impact on your visibility and results.
How to create backlinks that increase financial advisor visibility on the Internet?
Another effective SEO strategy is backlinks. A backlink is simply a link from one website to another. When other websites link to yours, it tells Google that your website is credible and should rank higher in relevant search results. Here are a few examples of ways to get backlinks:
- Reach out to other websites in your industry or niche and ask if they would be interested in linking to your site. This can be done by emailing the web admin or filling out a contact form on the site.
- Submit guest blog posts on other websites and include a link to your site in your author bio.
- Produce free offers, such as an eBook, and provide a link back to
your website when you publish it on social media or link with other bloggers.
What types of financial advisor marketing content rank best on Google?
High-quality content creation is a critical part of effective SEO and is a sound marketing principle. Ensure all of your website's content (including blog posts, landing pages, etc.) is professional and engaging
Some of the best content provides solutions to frequent pain points experienced by large numbers of investors. For example, a blog article could provide solutions for the most frequent financial concerns investors have when they transition from working years to retirement years.
Providing exceptional value to potential clients can cause them to keep coming back for more tips, and in a best-case scenario, they tell their friends, family, and associates about you.
Improving digital marketing for financial advisors
If you're not happy with where your website currently ranks in Google search results, you can do a few things to improve your visibility. One is to make sure your website is mobile-friendly—since more and more people are using their phones and tablets to access the internet these days, it's important to make sure your site looks good and is easy to use on smaller screens.
Another thing you can do is keyword research—finding out which keywords potential clients are using when they're searching for financial advisors and then making sure those keywords appear prominently on your website and in your blog articles.
Since the goal is to rank higher in Google, it is imperative that you play by Google’s top five rules for content:
- Original content only - no duplicate content from libraries.
- 1000-word articles or longer
- A consistent flow of new content
- High readability factor
- Linked to website pillar pages
How can SEO help financial advisors build credibility and authority?
We know investors are going to Google search for financial advisors as part of their research process. What do they see? Ideally, they see high-quality content that helps establish you as an expert in your field.
This adds to your credibility and builds trust. The opposite result occurs when they don’t find anything. This can reduce credibility and trust, particularly when your competitors are more visible.
Does pay-per-click (PPC) advertising produce quality leads for financial advisors?
PPC advertising is a great way to generate leads from the internet. With PPC ads, you only pay when someone clicks on your ad—hence the name “pay-per-click.” This makes PPC ads an effective and affordable way to reach potential clients online. You can use PPC ads on platforms like Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Yahoo Gemini.
Conclusion
The Internet provides financial advisors with a wealth of opportunities to reach out to investors and create relationships that can turn into new clients, assets, and revenues. By utilizing search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, and content marketing techniques, financial advisors can produce more leads and accelerate the growth of their businesses.
